OK.
I will read now from "Nine Alexandrias."
Same publisher and same translator.
First I will read a couple of poems from--
fragments from long poem.
The title "Nine Alexandrias", I wrote that poem during my trip
by train from Alexandria, Virginia to Los Angeles
and the back seven days after September 11.
"Nine Alexandrias."
Maybe that isn't all of them, but the way I figure it,
there are at least nine cities in America called Alexandria.
Cartography of the new had to be based
on the principle of tracing the old world
through an ocean of indigo.
The only thing that makes my trip across country manageable
is this.
Going from one Alexandria to another,
I can't help but get to the same city.
And only by knowing for sure that the world is still
in one piece can I imagine moving
from one American Alexandria to another
on the same Egyptian dock.